My 2 year old was up until 4:30 am puking. This is what the fumes produced...
From the Front – Victory in Battle.
Spite
Our glorious Idiot Defense Force was victorious in battle recently – but at first they weren’t sure.
As has been reported in this paper, what was initially an attempt to return Dinsog’s lighter has turned into an all-out effort to increase the friendliness on our sister continent. Toward this end the IDF has assisted in settling our own ‘neighborhood.’ This initiative (at the time of writing) includes three new cities and the ‘Our Town’ atmosphere is on the rise. But it wasn’t always so.
“Our first town was Spite, named after my great-uncle Gustavus Spite – not the un-neighborly emotion,” Said Daghdha. “As you can imagine, TNT was not happy about our moving into the area so we expected them to attack. And they did, I guess…”
The confusion that Daghdha expresses is best explained by the story.
One bright morning the residence of Spite awoke to nine TNT battalions in the forest outside of Spite. Certain that this was the Stack of Doom (SoD) preparing to attack the defenders began to make preparations. But in the midst of preparing their defensive measures something odd was noticed. Grahamian picks up the narrative…
“I was working on the walls getting the suppository ready for action when I noticed that this ‘SoD’ had nothing but pikes and a few horses. That didn’t make sense, who ever heard of a SoD like that? So I called over to Sir Bugsy and told him that I didn’t think they were here to attack.”
“You’ve taken idiocy too far,” Bugsy replied.
“Think about it; eight Pikemen and a horse. That's the dangdest excuse for a Stack o' Doom I think I've ever seen. What are they gonna do with that?”
“Well, you’ve got a point… So why are they here?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re the honor guard for a surrender.”
“Nah, we haven’t received any surrender communiqués.”
“Well, those woods are pretty pleasant, maybe they’re there for a picnic.”
“They are nice woods…”
“That’s got to be it, eight pikes and one horse, that doesn’t make military sense so it must be something else.”
Sir Bugsy looked thoughtful for a moment. “So what do you propose we do?”
“Let’s join them! I’m up for a picnic.”
So with the force of military logic firmly behind them the preparations turned from martial to recreational. The garrison gathered bocce balls, horse shoes, shade umbrellas and folding chairs while others raided the larder to bring food and drink, especially the fresh hams that had been sent from KISS.
Eager to begin the festivities Daghdha took the lead with the group brining food. There was a growing sense of excitement amongst the IDF, perhaps neighborliness had taken hold in TNT. Maybe this picnic would be the start of a new era; after all, TNT had clearly come to recreation…but they were wrong, TNT had come to fight, or at least do what passed for fighting in Persia.
This became apparent when the first trooper to reach TNT’s ranks was skewered by one of the 12’ pikes. The remaining IDF soldiers were shocked into inaction, only recovering when the keg the first soldier was carrying started to fall; it is a matter of honor in KISS never to let a keg hit the ground so several soldiers ran to the rescue only to be struck down as well.
Jb1964 picks up the tale. “Scoutsout had been brooding on the wall, woman troubles I think, and he immediately sprang into action. He had everyone carrying picnic supplies bring them to the trebuchets. Next thing I know there is a hail of bocce balls and beer bottles raining among the pikes, I even saw one man skewered by a shade umbrella – darndest thing I ever saw.”
“While the artillery took its toll Daghdha went into action. He calmly walked up to the seemingly impenetrable wall of pikes, took out the three 12lb. hams he had in his pack and stuck each one on the end of a different pike. Then he stepped back, pulled out a cigar and waited. We all wondered what he was doing, we thought the disappointment about the picnic turning into a battle had made him snap. But by Meleet, after a couple minutes those pikeman couldn’t hold up their stickers with the extra weight, and as soon as the hole opened up Dag pulled out his sword, walked in and started hacking.”
At this point jb1964 starts laughing, “What could they do? They didn’t have any swords, only those unweildy, 12' 'pig-stickers!'”
Seeing this tactic, the rest of the IDF took up the battle cry “Pork! Chop! Pork! Chop!” and after following Daghdha’s example gaping holes soon opened in TNT’s line as the picnickers cum Gallic Swordsmen went to work.
At the end of the day the would be holiday was a holocaust for TNT in what is being called the Battle of Porkchop Hill as seven pike battalions and one unit of horseman lay slain on the field. KISS casualties were surprisingly light.
“It still doesn’t make sense,” said Daghda as he turned the ham stuck on his sword over the fire he had made with pike shafts. “it obviously wasn’t a picnic, but it wasn’t a SoD either. They’re weird over here in TNT. Maybe that was some strange way to reduce unit upkeep costs or fertalize their fields or something. Wow, does this place need new management. And now,” he said slowly rising, “Scoutsout promised me pulled pork BBQ if I brought some meat. That is no problem."